JOURNEYS: FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT

Journeys: From Darkness to Light

Sunday, April 30th, 2017 at 7PM
Gindi Auditorium

a flyer for the LAJS concert "A World of Jewish Music"

On April 30th, 2017, the LAJS presented Journeys: From Darkness to Light. The sold-out Gindi Auditorium responded with two standing ovations!

Every work on the program reflected the theme: movement from the nadir of adversity into a joyful place of freedom and light. The concert date was especially appropriate, falling between Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Yom Ha’atzmaut, the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of Israel.

Featured works were William Hilsley’s Seasons, the journey of a prisoner of war from internment to freedom; and the US Première of Anna Drubich’s Kaddish, which received its world premiere last November at Vivacello, the prestigious International Cello Festival in Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.

Video and Image Gallery

“The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony’s Sunday April 30th concert was fabulous! Conductor Noreen Green was her usual dynamic self. All the soloists including Ron Li-Paz were great, especially his ditties in Yiddish. I can hardly wait for the next concert!”

Bobby Klubeck

Audience Member

Hila Plitmann performs with leading orchestras around the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, The National Symphony, The Minnesota Orchestra, the Israeli Symphony and the London Symphony Orchestra, and has had the pleasure of working with outstanding world-renowned conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, EsaPekka Salonen, Thomas Adès, Carl St. Clair, Giancarlo Guerrero, Robert Spano and JoAnn Falletta.

Rabbi Li-Paz preceded his cantorial career with a successful decade as a leading guest artist in opera and concerts. He sang as a soloist in major roles in eleven countries and in some of the world’s greatest theaters including the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Councertgebouw in Amsterdam and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In 2011, he was invited to sing the anthems of the United States and Israel in Washington DC before President Obama, Prime Minister Netanyahu, most members of Congress and an audience of more than ten thousand people.

The Russian cellist Evgeny Tonkha has been playing cello in movies and TV shows, along with his work with the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony

A classical musician by trade, Helane Marie Anderson‘s degrees were in Piano Performance (Bachelor of Music from Salem College) and Arts Administration (M.A. from Indiana University), and she spent a year in-between studying classical piano performance at the Music Conservatory in Amsterdam. Helane made an active decision at that time to take the conventional music administration route and began a career in New York City. Eventually, she took a job as Artistic Administrator of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which was what originally brought her to LA.